Pakistan slumped to a series defeat at Northampton, losing their last 5 wickets for just 8 runs as England turned in a thoroughly professional fielding performance, holding on to 7 outfield catches, leaving Amy Jones for once with little to do behind the stumps but twiddle her gloves, following her “4fer” in Birmingham.

After the early departure of Danni Wyatt, Maia Bouchier and Alice Capsey combined to give England what looks on the scorecard to be a decent enough start – 48-1 at the end of the powerplay; but 42% of those runs had come in just one 20-run over, which was probably the least convincing 20-run over I’ve ever seen.

Capsey was on 2 off 9 balls at the start of the 4th over, and looking… it has to be said… somewhat at sea, much as she had at Edgbaston. The over then began with Capsey dancing down the pitch and getting a big edge which passed just out of reach of the diving keeper – 4 runs, which could have easily been another early bath. Then two more thoroughly unconvincing, baseball-style clubs into the leg side, but nonetheless bringing a brace more 4s. A defensive push straight back to the bowler somehow also found its way through to the boundary, and then after a dot off the 5th, finally a much more convincing shot off the final ball for another 4.

At that point it felt like the switch might have flicked, and we were relishing the prospect of Capsey finally producing that really big innings for England that her talent has always promised; but it wasn’t quite to be – she disappeared back into her shell again, scoring just 9 runs from the next 18 balls she faced, before being caught behind, and then… just to really rub it in… stumped for good measure, to end things.

Capsey did joint-top-score, and also go on to take 2 wickets as Pakistan committed hara-kiri, winning her player of the match. But she’s into her 3rd summer of international cricket now, and after playing 28 games for England, she averages little more than Charlie Dean, with Dean averaging 19 at a Strike Rate of 108, and Capsey 22 at a Strike Rate of 123. It’s better. But not as better as it ought to be. And yes, to bend George W Bush’s quote, she is suffering from what you might call “the hard bigotry of high expectations”, but if she wants to be the best, she has to do better.

Nat Sciver-Brunt’s 31 looked a lot more authoritative, but it took another very decent cameo from Dani Gibson – 18 from 9 balls – for England to get up to the kind of score that would have given them something to bowl at against most other opponents.

Of course, they didn’t need those runs today, with Pakistan folding as they did, but one day they will, and if Gibson can nail-down that “finisher” role for England, it would be a huge win for JonBall. The other side of that coin however is that when Nat Sciver-Brunt is unable to bowl, which is becoming an increasingly regular feast in the liturgical calendar of English cricket, Gibson probably isn’t the right player to take on a full bowling role in her stead.

It is a headache that even Lewis’s famous AI might be ill-equipped to cure, and you get the feeling from the way the bowling changes proceeded today that Heather Knight knows it too – it felt like she was trying to hide Gibson’s overs where no one would notice, which isn’t an ideal starting-point for your 5th bowler. And maybe that too is the hard bigotry of high expectations, but we aren’t playing softball any more. This team has been given resources that previous generations could not even have dreamed about – our expectations are high, but theirs should be higher.